NEARING every election year, the People’s National Congress Reform led-A Partnership for National Unity and affiliates, such as Alliance For Change (AFC), and Working People’s Alliance (WPA), target the Amerindian communities attempting to convince them that the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) Government is neglecting them and is short-changing them with the planned developmental projects or monies they are about to receive.

This happens because these indigenous communities are perceived to be facilitators of shifting the ‘balance of power’ from the PPP/C to PNC-APNU or a Third Force in the local political arena.
So, regardless of the well-documented and highly-visible reality that PPP/C Governments have sustained an unprecedented dynamism in the provision of services and social enhancement interventions in Amerindian communities, the Opposition and its clandestine partners and affiliates in civil society, non-governmental entities, rights groups and their allies in the media, continually attempt to mislead the indigenous populace into believing that the opposite is true.

They do this by muddying the facts and presenting false pictures of caring for their welfare.

Their strategy of using manipulations and the deliberate twisting of the facts can only lead to a derailment of the PPP/C Government’s hinterland development drive.

This year, the combined Opposition is involved in the very same strategy and political tactics. They are using nefarious arguments, lumpy generalizations, and strategies to stymie the momentum of Guyana’s Low-Carbon Development Strategy 2030 (LCDS).

Further, they now seek to cause confusion surrounding the portion of Guyana’s sale of carbon credits that will go towards the countless Amerindian and Indigenous communities that will benefit from accelerated development by saying it is not enough.

They say too that the PPP government is guilty of seeking to make decisions for the Amerindians when this could not be more than far from the truth. Here are some facts that do not wear clothes and will never change.

Firstly, it is the combined Opposition parties and their known and unknown supporters in the form of the Amerindian People’s Association (APA) and civil society groups that are wreaking havoc on the Amerindian populace by sowing the seeds of division and non-development.

They have suddenly awoken from their slumber and have found an interest in US $750M Carbon Sales from the Hess Corporation that is flowing into the country’s coffers.

Recall that the LCDS strategy that was in place when the APNU+AFC Administration got into office in 2015 was left to rot, and funds that should have gone to the Amerindians and their development were diverted to other projects, and not used. They left the Amerindians out in the cold, firing close to 2,000 of them in the process.

Additionally, the LCDS somehow morphed into the Green Paper on State Development or died. The APNU+AFC Government did absolutely nothing about deforestation, forests, climate change, or the environment, much less further the serious development of Guyana’s first peoples.

Where was the APA’s voice on the development of Amerindians whom they now ‘love’?

Where was the paper organization – the Policy Forum – when the Amerindians needed a voice because of the crippling policies of the then Government?

Where was this profound interest by the PNC/R-APNU in the percentage that the Amerindians would get initially from carbon credit sales that Guyana received?

What did they do with the LCDS from 2015 to the first quarter of 2020 to be able to question this PPP/C Government without shame in their eyes?

The answer will help guide the minds of Guyanese if they can be given such honestly and factually.

Secondly, these shell groups and combined Opposition are shameless in their political fight for power. They know that they are just using Guyana’s indigenous population as “collateral damage.”

They want to cause confusion and chaos among indigenous people who attended the conference and listened, albeit amicably and admirably, to Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo’s talk of how ‘not one dollar’ of the funds will be stolen, siphoned off or taken by the PPP/C Government.

Also, the Amerindian and Indigenous leaders are by far more intelligent and knowledgeable of this alleged wicked attempt at misinformation on the carbon credit sales and disinformation driven by the PNC-APNU, allies and the media, particularly those that take the opposition slant, and are becoming anti-development.

It is sad that in Guyana, and developing nations, individuals representing funding agencies arrive in the host countries with pre-conceived ideas from false information fed to them by PNC-led coalition lobby forces.

The Amerindian leaders know that upon their arrival, they immerse themselves in the socializing circuit and, without doing any comprehensive, non-prejudicial ground assessments, they join with individuals and organisations.

In this instance, the APA misdirects funding, whereby monies meant to help the disempowered and the vulnerable, find themselves in the pockets of a few persons who term themselves administrators of skillfully-concocted ‘programmes.’

Whether the IFI representatives benefit in any way – either in cash or kind – is moot, because many of them are not doing their work and making assessments accurately, efficiently and effectively.

The argument of political affiliation is a nebulous one because several politically-linked organisations have been receiving massive funding from International Funding Agencies and local bodies on the basis that they are helping to, among other things, enhance Amerindian lives and lifestyles, but in reality, little is done.

Thirdly, the PPP/C Government has addressed the issue of Amerindian land rights when no one else cared, with millionaire logging families grabbing Amerindian lands and mining companies destroying indigenous survival systems, including polluting vital water sources (one broom-out minister is a bullying culprit in this regard); and inhibiting operations of small loggers, most of whom are PNC supporters.

While everyone is pursuing agendas inimical to the welfare of the Amerindian peoples, the PPP/C Government continues on its path to provide relief to Amerindians, creating systems and programmes that continually empower the indigenous peoples who, for decades before the advent of successive PPP/C administrations, were a marginalized, almost forgotten people in this land, contemptuously.

Finally, the PPP/C Government must not allow itself to get sidetracked or diverted from addressing the development concerns of the Amerindian people. They must not break under the pressure placed on them by the Opposition, civil society groups and their political lackeys ahead of the local government elections and General elections planned for this year and 2025. They must not be dragged into the corner with their backs to the wall.

And, the Amerindians must not listen to the voices of the Opposition which sound the same, because the government has a consultation process that works, and a strong track record of working with the Amerindian people.

At present, these indigenous people are taking centre stage in national development. The partnerships between the Village administration and the members of the village, with the Government, have created long-term plans in infrastructure, education, health, and secure livelihoods.

It is therefore a point to note that Amerindians will never be 2nd-class citizens, dumped into a netherworld of development under any PPP/C administration, as has transpired under every PNC-led government.

Amerindians should by now realize PPP/C administrations utilize national funds wisely and prudently to benefit the nation by building infrastructure and enhancing health and social systems that will also create a developmental paradigm. Guyana is one whole, not divided into ethnic enclaves by any sanctimonious, opportunistic pretender with a divide-and-rule political agenda. Amerindians are not collateral damage.